SickKids has built an integrated environment of patient care, research and learning. Nine centres within the hospital specialize in bone health, brain and behaviour, cancer, cystic fibrosis, heart, pain, image-guided care, genetic medicine, and transplantation. In 2009–2010, SickKids admitted 14,000 in-patients who stayed for an average of 7.1 days. The operating room treated 11,000 cases; there were 58,000 visits to the emergency department and 215,000 visits to the hospital’s ambulatory clinics. SickKids has about 370 beds and provides the highest level of complex and specialized paediatric family-centred care.[1]

The SickKids Research Institute is the largest child health research institute in Canada. It employs almost 2,000 people, or a quarter of the SickKids workforce. The Research Institute is known for its groundbreaking research in stem cells, childhood cancer, cystic fibrosis and other diseases, and is home to the Database of Genomic Variations, known as the Toronto Database.[2]

The Learning Institute was established in 2007 to support all forms of learning, from formal training of health-care workers, to the education of patients and families and the transfer of knowledge to the community. SickKids shares its knowledge globally through SickKids International.[3]

SickKids Corporate Ventures facilitates the transfer of knowledge developed by physicians, scientists and professionals into products and programs. Its 130 licences for intellectual property technologies generate about $2 million annually.[6]

SickKids Research Institute is a group of scientists under the leadership of Dr. Janet Rossant, Chief of Research. They will all be housed under one roof in The SickKids Research & Learning Tower. Construction of the 21-storey building started in 2010 and is scheduled for completion in 2013. The $400-million project is supported by Canada Foundation for Innovation, a $200-million fundraising campaign led by SickKids Foundation, and long-term borrowing.[7] In January 2014, The Hospital for Sick Kids was recognized by Expertscape as #2 worldwide for expertise in Kawasaki disease.[8]

1875 – Elizabeth McMaster and several other women from Toronto set up a children's hospital on Avenue Road. Starting in April the hospital admitted forty-four patients and treated sixty-seven as outpatients.[9]

1876 – the hospital moved to larger facilities. In 1891 the hospital moved from rented premises to a building constructed for it at College and Elizabeth Streets where it would remain for sixty years. This old building, known as the Victoria Hospital for Sick Children, is now the Toronto area headquarters of Canadian Blood Services. In 1951 the hospital moved to its present University Avenue location, on the grounds where Canadian star Mary Pickford's childhood home once stood.[9] The hospital underwent its last major expansion in 1993 with the construction of a glass-roofed atrium on the east side of the main building.

1883 – The hospital opened the first fresh air sanitarium in Toronto, and likely Canada, for the treatment of tuberculosis and other ailments.[10]

1892 – A school was opened. This is the first time a school has been set up within a hospital.[10]

1908 – SickKids installed the first milk pasteurization plant in Canada and leads the fight for compulsory pasteurization.[11]

1918 – First research laboratory at SickKids was established. In the 1930s, the laboratory enriches milk with Vitamin D to combat rickets that plagues many of the patients admitted to the hospital.[11]

1980-1981 – A series of baby deaths at the hospital prompt a 1984 royal commission of inquiry under Justice Samuel Grange[15] but attempts to hold staff criminally responsible for the deaths ultimately failed.[16]

2007 – Mondial Energy Inc. (now known as GEMCO Solar) installed the first hospital-based solar thermal energy system on the rooftop of SickKids Hospital. The system is used to heat up the hospital’s hot water supply for domestic use, reducing energy costs.[21]

2009 – SickKids researchers identified eight genes, which, when mutated, cause medulloblastoma, the most common childhood brain cancer. In 2010, the disease was identified as four distinctly different strains that can be treated in different ways.[22][23]

2013 – "HSC Research and Development Limited," a legal entity controlled by SickKids in Toronto, was one of multiple patent holders suing to prevent introduction of a less-expensive generic version of a test for susceptibility to breast and ovarian cancers.[25]

Philanthropy is a critical source of funding for SickKids, separate from the funding received from government and granting agencies.[26]

In 2011/2012, SickKids Foundation spent $61.3 million. Of that amount, the Foundation granted $59.3 million directly to the hospital and $2 million to national, international and other initiatives.[27]